A Long, Fast Road to the Next Big Thing in Tech: Dispatches from the StartupBus

On March 3rd, several dozen tech-industry start-up types gathered in parking lots around the continent, bags packed for a road trip like no other. The destination was Austin, Texas, home of the infamous South by Southwest film, music, and technology bonanza (or SXSW for those in the know). The ride was a tour bus, a cozy incubator where total strangers would have no choice but to become fast friends. And the mission: build a company from scratch in a competition of brains, endurance, and creativity.

This is the StartupBus concept, a binge-coding pilgrimage to one of the biggest events in the tech world. It began in 2009 when Elias Bizannes developed the idea. This year, buses departed from New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, and Mexico City. And Wired has a source on the inside, as Alyssa Reese provides updates from the road.

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As I take a seat among 20 other passengers on the StartupBus, I quickly recognize my brethren: I am among tech nerds, my people. There is a wide variety of skill sets represented onboard, but everyone has a common background: technology start-ups. Whether we’re software developers, designers, or hustlers, we all have some legitimate nerd cred, though most of us have never met before. But on Sunday, March 3rd, we gathered under a foggy San Francisco morning, ordered coffee, and passed by our group leader for a quick pour of marshmallow vodka before the drive began.

This is the backdrop for the 4th annual StartupBus. Teams from around the United States and Mexico have formed and are currently driving to Austin. Each team has three days to build technology, develop a solid business pitch, and get as much traction as possible. Our bus, coming from San Francisco, has pedigree: the winners of last year’s event – Cerealize – sat in these same coffee-encrusted seats 12 months ago.

The event starts with introductions and idea pitches: a platform to help people improve their sexual health, a mobile app that would emit mosquito repellent sound, and a service that outsources menial tasks. There is no shortage of ideas, but eventually three teams crystallize and start to distribute jobs and strategize plans of attack.

One of the companies forming on the bus is ghostpost.io, an app that allows people to anonymously group chat via mobile web. Users can create chat rooms around specific events or topics and invite people to join the conversation without revealing their identity. They are testing the idea live on the bus by allowing anyone on board to post anonymously to their twitter feed @ghostpostapp. The outcome is sometimes jarring, often entertaining, and always mysterious. We’re all left asking, “Who posted that last comment?”

If all goes as planned over the next few days, the Ghostpost team will launch the product at SXSW, allowing people to share frank and open live commentary on speakers, parties and other public events at the festival without any fear of retribution.

The other two companies on the bus are Grassroots, a platform for demanding political action, and Coders Without Borders (@Coderswb), which is building a community of established coders that want to mentor aspiring geeks.

The StartupBus makes a pit stop in San Diego. (Image credit: Blake Benthall)

Cramming a group of smart tech folks with strong personalities into a bus while they work together for the first time can get a little intense. There have been heated debates about which javascript frameworks should be used, what the strategic vision of the one day-old company should be, and many a threat of possible pivots. Ultimately, arguments are resolved, and new relationships are patched up over swigs of fine scotch and talks about user adoption strategies.

Hackathons are a relatively recent phenomenon in which a group of people comes together for a few days to make things rapidly. StartupBus is a hackathon at high speeds (literally), and while hackathons are intense to begin with, StartupBus takes it to another level. There is no going home at the end of the night or walking down the street to get a coffee. There are no distractions from friends or home life. The teams are spending 10-12 hours per day together on the bus while the scenery speeds by at 70mph. The days end with shared hotel rooms and start early the next morning, the beginning of another long day.

There is a strange feeling of displacement on the bus, as most passengers have only a vague idea of which state they’re in and glances out the window are perfunctory and disinterested. Beautiful scenery is nothing compared with a properly deploying code and the hottest new app at SXSW. The landscape blurs in the background, largely ignored but nevertheless crucial in giving this unique hackathon a feeling of excitement, intensity, and possibility.

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